Problem: What is $26\%$ of $300$ ?
Solution: Having $26\%$ of something means that you get $26$ out of every $100$ We can set up a proportion to find out what number is $26\%$ of $300$ $ \dfrac{{\text{percent}}}{100} = \dfrac{{\text{part}}}{{\text{whole}}}$ Which things do we know, and what are we trying to find? We know the ${\text{percent}}$ is $26$ . Is $300$ the ${\text{part}}$ or the ${\text{whole}}$ The $300$ is the ${\text{whole}}$ . We are trying to find the ${\text{part}}$ that makes up $26\%$ of it: $ \dfrac{{26}}{100} = \dfrac{{\text{part}}}{{300}}$ If we multiply the denominator of the fraction on the left by $3$ , it will be the same denominator of the fraction on the right. To keep things equal, let's also multiply the numerator on the left by $3$ $ \dfrac{{26} \times 3}{100 \times 3} = \dfrac{{\text{part}}}{{300}}$ $ \dfrac{{78}}{300} = \dfrac{{\text{part}}}{{300}}$ $ {78} = {\text{part}}$ So $78$ is $26\%$ of $300$.